A Triptych as Compass

In From the Curator, Getty curators and conservators explore works of art in Getty's collection. Mazie Harris is associate curator of photographs for the Getty Museum.

More frequently than we might care to admit, we find ourselves tangled in concerns, unsure how to move ahead when the world’s problems seem heaped and knotted in our hands.

María Magdalena Campos-Pons evokes that feeling of confusion in the left panel of this triptych. The child of an herbalist father and granddaughter of a Santería priestess, Campos-Pons grew up in Cuba attuned to the power of nature and the solace of spiritual guidance. The color palette and symbols in this composition evoke the orisha Eleguá, the deity who opens doors, clears paths, and blesses journeys.

At center, Campos-Pons stands with eyes closed, draped in prayer beads as she looks inward for direction. At right, garabatos—hooked sticks that resemble the tool used by Eleguá and Campos-Pons’s father to clear paths—offer a way forward.

In the years I’ve been working on Behold, the survey of work by Campos-Pons now on view in the Center for Photographs, I’ve returned again and again to this composition to remind myself of the importance of remaining reflective and centered even as—or perhaps most especially when—life feels impossibly hard to navigate.

Can’t see María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold in person at the Getty Center in Los Angeles? Enjoy the accompanying exhibition catalog below.